Valentine's Mischief: Pets Over Partners?!

Petplan, which we use for Rita's insurance, surveyed 4800 pet parents with some questions about Valentine’s Day. Some of the results were kind of amusing, and maybe sound like your house or mine??

Dementia and Show Tunes (and Dogs!), Oh My!

The other day, there was a report stating researchers found that singing show tunes helped improve brain function in patients with Alzheimer's/dementia. The researchers held sing-along sessions with hits from The Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music, and found that those who sang along showed "marked improvement" compared to those who just listened.

The hubs and I really worry about our brains - especially mine, which often doesn't work right. This was fantastic news to me, because I know every word to every song from Oklahoma! (and most of them for TSoM and TWoO and, as a bonus, South Pacific). We not only had the albums when I was a kid, but I played Aunt Eller in the school musical. (I shoulda rounded up a pic, but that would be Throw-back Thur, and today's Less-Wordy Wed.)

To prove to myself I still had it, I typed out the lyrics to Ado Annie's "I Can't Say No" from Oklahoma. (Hit that link if you've never heard it. It's not exactly a beautiful tune, but it's fun.) 

So, here are my typed lyrics... accompanied by repurposed dog photos.

Monday Mischief: Custom Bedding! And a Storage Problem Solved!

The hubs and I have been on the search for a good night's sleep (defined as not waking up in pain. Is that too much to ask?) for, like, years now. A while back we realized we wanted different things, so went to two twins in our king frame. Because of our search, we have a couple of spare twin bed toppers around the house, and since we had (yet another) new bed coming, I needed to do some rearranging. 

I asked the hubs to toss one of the toppers in the spare room until I could rearrange some stuff stored under that bed and store the topper under there too. That night we went to bed and Rita trotted off to the spare room where she sometimes sleeps up on the guest bed. We heard what sounded either like distant fireworks (my guess, since we live within hearing distance of SeaWorld's fireworks and it was a 3-day weekend for MLK Jr. Day) OR Rita rearranging the blanket we keep on top of the guest bed for when she sleeps in there (the hub's guess, since Rita likes a cozy nest). We were both wrong.

The next morning I found this:

Someone had a good time.

Wordless Wed.: The Dog's a Fan of the Bone Broth Craze!

Did you know there's a bone broth craze going on? (If something makes The Today Show it's probably officially a craze!) I've been making bone broth for the hubs (so it will hopefully help with his joint and bone issues). He drinks a hot mug of it every night, and the dog's a fan!

Here she is watching, waiting, and hoping while I prep the bones for the cooking.

Lost & Found Mischief

Each novel I write has its own notebook. It holds various things: a rough outline, timeline, character notes, lists of names, maybe some first-draft scenes when I don't feel like working on my desktop PC, any newspaper articles or photos or other bits of inspiration, etc.

Well, this weekend I realized I'd lost my notebook for Book #4. Aggggh! I figured it was in the house, so looked everywhere. I've been known to absentmindedly set things down in weird places when I'm straightening up and have my hands too full, so I really looked everywhere! (Yes, I looked in the freezer.)

Lots to Celebrate! (Including Book News!)

There's a lotta stuff to celebrate today on PoochSmooches, so I hope you'll let me be a teensy bit wordy! (Don't you always??) :)

First of all, Jan. 21 is Rita's Gotcha Day! Three years ago we brought this crazy little pup home.

Momma's Girl? Daddy's Boy? Does Your Pet Have a Preference?

This is a daddy's girl:

Our beagle Bailey was a major daddy's girl. She would sit in his lap and hug and kiss him for ages. And he would just let her. They were quite the pair. (I literally gave up once after counting 1000 kisses.)

Wordless Wednesday: Left Out in the Cold

Recently when my sis was dog-sitting Rita, she took Reg and Rita over to a neighbor's house so they could race around in their park-like backyard. (Yes, the livin' is easy - and warm - in the winter time in San Diego, but our backyards are tiny.) 

They played:

Monday Mischief: There's Always One!

Every year when I put my Christmas stuff away after New Year's, there's always ONE thing that evades me, which is a pain since the Xmas decor gets crammed, er, packed with great precision into storage boxes. The heavy boxes are then hefted up onto the top shelf of our storage closet/pantry, with all manner of odd-sized/shaped things piled on top.

So, any missing item gets to spend the year sitting on the shelf in the closet surveying our comings and goings. (Since this is also the closet where Rita's treats reside, we come and go a lot!)

Because of the "there's always one!" problem, I usually do a military-precision-style sweep of the house, going through each room several times to make sure no one gets left behind. I pile everything on/around the dining room table, and when I'm sure I've got it all, I start cramming, er, packing.

Well, I really thought I'd rounded up and exiled everyone this year, until Rita pointed out that we had a stow-away hiding between two dining room chairs.

Pooch Smooches Takes the Pet Blogger Challenge

Today is the Fifth Annual Pet Blogger Challenge hosted by Go Pet Friendly (check them out if you like to travel with your pets!). It's a way for bloggers to "encourage, motivate and support each other." If you're a pet blogger and haven't joined already, hop on!

 

1. How long have you been blogging? And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about.

Less-Wordy Wednesday: A Photo Tribute to a New Angel

Sadly, our family lost another pup over the holidays - my sister's dog, Indy. Since it's Wordless Wed., I've got a little tribute to her in pictures:

A painting my other sis did of Indy

A Resolution Your Dog Can Help You Keep

Most of us know the routine with New Year's resolutions - we make them on January 1st, but they're usually forgotten by about mid-January! 

Well, last year SlimDoggy challenged us all to move our mutts, and Rita and I took the challenge seriously!

Wordless Wednesday: Comfort and Joy

Thought I'd share with you the front of our Christmas card for this year:

Monday Mischief: Everything Is Irresistible

It's Christmas, and Rita is finding everything irresistible. 

First of all, there's the "dogs at the beach" themed tree I put up. She LOVES the smell of the starfish and shells on the tree! It's a bit of Momma-mischief to put something so smelly on the tree, but so far this year she's been good and hasn't stolen anything off the tree!

Dog-Inspired Xmas Windows and Forced Xmas Crafting

If you've followed the blog for a while, you know that every Christmas my sisters and I get together to paint my one sister's windows. It's always a dog theme, featuring her pup Indy. (Last year was Fleas Navidad. If you'd like to see a retrospective of some of my faves, check out the guest post I did at Peggy's The Writer's Dog blog 2 years ago.)

This year, we also did a bit of "forced crafting." That's what my family calls it when someone gets the idea to do a little crafting project, and the rest of us are forced to join in. (It's like a forced march, but more fun. And you end up with cute things to bring home.) I'll share pics and how-to instructions from our craft at the end of the post for those who like to get crafty!

Now, back to the windows. This year the theme was Muttly Kalikimaka, so of course we have Indy on a sandy beach wearing a lei, with the ocean behind her. 

Monday Mischief: A Spa Technique the Dog Hates

Last week, the hubs and I went away for our first ever vacation at a spa. (Although I scheduled some posts to go up while we were away, we were mostly "unplugged" so I wasn't able to reply to comments or visit your blogs. I missed you guys!)  While we were at the spa, we took a lot of classes, including one on myofacial release - basically using tennis balls to massage your fascia (the thin connective tissue that wraps around your muscles and most other structures in your body).

Rita is not a fetch-crazed dog. She has several tennis balls, but mostly ignores them. Oh, she'll chase them a time or two if you initiate a game, but she quickly gets bored and her tennis balls just lie around the house.

Wordless Wednesday: Before and After

Last week I shared this pic of Reggie after he and Rita had had a good play session, romping in the damp grass and through the flower beds:

A Gift for You - A Free Anthology!

No mischief today - just a little giftie from me to you guys! I've got a Fido-friendly fictional short story coming out in an anthology, called A Cup of Christmas.*

The anthology will be FREE (!) from Tuesday, Dec. 2 and for the next 3 days. Thereafter, it will be priced at $1.99, and ALL proceeds will go to First Book, a children's literacy charity.

"Cindy Lou" from my story

Wordy Wednesday: Thankful! #ShareGratitude

Thursday is one of my most favorite days of the year here in the US: Thanksgiving!

So, in the spirit of a holiday that is all about gratitude (and FOOD - one of me and Rita's fave things!), we are joining the Share Gratitude hop!

I hope you don't mind if I get a little wordy, while I share a combined list for Rita and me.

Waiting: The Reverse Angle AND a Winner!

Last week, I showed you how it looks when Rita is waiting on Reggie. This week, we've got a view from the other side of things.

Here's Reg waiting on Rita's arrival. He's not quite as patient as Rita. He waits by the door...

Less Wordy Wed: Whatcha Waitin' For?

Can you guess what Rita is waiting for?

Sitting and waiting, about 20 min before the expected arrival.

Pet Cancer Awareness & A #Giveaway!

November is Pet Cancer Awareness Month. I know there's also a PCA month in May... but who am I to tell whoever organizes these things to coordinate their months?? Besides, the more awareness, the better, right?

So, today, to hopefully help make people more aware about pet cancer, there's no mischief on the blog... instead, we've got some pet cancer detection tips and a little giveaway!

Several years ago, the hubs and I did a canine cancer walk to raise money for Morris Animal Foundation. At that event they said that ~25% of all dogs will get cancer. 

Our familial unit back in 2011 at the MAF Canine Cancer Walk

Wordless Wednesday: Something Lovely with Something Icky

Do you ever wonder how your beautiful pups can stand to put some of the grossest things in their mouths??

This lovely girl is up for adoption at Helen Woodward Animal Center where I volunteer each week. There were plenty of nice, clean tennis balls to play with, but of course she wanted to play with the icky, muddy one! (Thank you to the genius who invented the ChuckIt! I never had to actually touch the thing!)

Monday Mischief: Puppy Mischief - What To Expect!

I wish I'd known about the Monday Mischief blog hop back when we had Abby. That girl was a master mischief maker!

Cutest puppy ever. 100% filled with mischief.

Wordless Wednesday: Sending Good Thoughts

Today we have a special request for our friends over at The Three Little Pugs. 

Stella Rose, Margaret Mae and Angus McConnell have a human family member, Macey, who needs good thoughts and prayers. You can read about (and see super adorable pictures of) Macey here. 

Monday Mischief: "I am NOT a Rabbit!"

Did you know that Saturday, Nov. 1 was "National Cook for Your Pets Day"?! (That "for" is really important in that title...) I didn't realize it until I flipped our PetPlan calendar over to November - which I did a day late.

But even though I didn't know it was NCfYP Day, I did recently start cooking for Rita. She's always eaten a good quality, grain-free kibble, with some organic canned food of one type or another mixed in. Pretty much no matter what I buy, and no matter how much she loves it on day one, but day 3 she's bored of it. Plus I got tired of always having to pick up cans of stuff for her, so I started cooking for her, and stirring this mix of organic meat, root veggies and green veggies in with her kibble.

And she loves it.

I Love Halloween; The Dog Hates It

I love Halloween. I love seeing everyone's creative costumes; I love the spooky decorations; I love the candy. :)

Rita, however, hates everything about it.

She hates when Momma tries to put stuff on her (although she will tolerate it for a few seconds for a treat): 

Is She Gonna Make Us An Offer We Can't Refuse?

Remember when we gave Rita a pony for her birthday?

Less Wordy Wednesday: Caption This Goofy Pic

I snapped this goofy pic the other day at Helen Woodward, where I volunteer, when 2 of my fave pups were playing under my legs. Wanna try and caption it?

I'm going with: "I dub thee Sir EatsALot!"

Your Dog Ate What?? A Guide to Edible Hazards

In my debut novel, What the Dog Ate, there's a lotta mischief going on. In fact, in the first sentence, we find out that both Maggie's dog and hubby have been up to mischief: "The vet handed Maggie Baxter a plastic specimen bag containing a pair of size-tiny lavender thong panties extracted from her dog; but they were not hers."

"Panties. Yum!"

When you write a book about a Lab with a "the-world-is-my-smorgasbord" attitude, folks tell you stories about the odd things their pets have eaten. (Note that all these dogs ended up being fine!) Like the dog that ate the zipper on his bed. The zipper! Or a friend's cat that ate the prescription pill her husband dropped. (I thought it was impossible to get a cat to take a pill??)

Blog the Change: An Easy Way to Help Animals

Today it's Blog the Change for Animals again, so I'm sharing a super easy-peasy way to help animals. It will literally only take a minute or two.

But... let's start with a photo of a smiling Rita:

"Cheeeeese! Wait.. really? Cheese??"

There's a purpose to that pic, because my easy-peasy way for you to help animals is to shop through AmazonSmile. Since I'm writing about AmazonSmile, I figured we'd start out with a RitaSmile.

Monday Mischief: Should I Always Say Goodbye?

When Rita and her cousin Reg get together, it usually looks a lot like this:

Less Wordy Wed.: Can You Guess What This Is?

Today we have a guessing game. Can you guess what this is?

Wordless Wednesday: Rewards and Resolutions

I'm excited to share that my second novel, Rescue Me, Maybe, won a Gold Medal award in the Readers' Favorite 2014 contest in the Fiction - Animals category!

Rita looks way cuter in the medal than I do, so she'll model it. (As you can see, she was not super thrilled about the modeling gig. She would rather have a treat than a stupid medal any day! And just so you know... she did get a treat too, of course!)

"Momma, this is lame."

Monday Mischief: Time Is Slow When You Fast

The mischief was all on the momma again this week. Rita was due for her annual check up, and the vet we usually see was only available at 2:15. Since they wanted to do blood work, they said she needed to fast.

Here's a timeline of how the fasting news went over with Rita.

7:15am Momma breaks the news that there will be no breakfast.

"Uh, how's that, Momma?"

Wordless Wednesday: Me and My Shadow

Look at me... I was wordless!

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday!

Monday Mischief: What a Friend We Have in Cheeses

Last year I posted "Does the Gardener Taste Like Chicken?", which included a lot of very blurry pics, like the one below, of Rita going ballistic when our gardener comes over. 

"Hey, you!! Get outta my yard!"

Less Wordy Wed.: Pups in Their New Homes

Remember ages ago when we had (wool) puppies for sale on the blog? [As as aside... those adorable little corgis were the only ones that didn't sell. So if anyone needs a felted tail-less (sorry Taryn) corgi....]

Today for Wordless (or as I like to call it "Slightly Less-Wordy") Wednesday, I thought I'd show you pics of a couple of them in their furever homes. Er... wait - their woolever homes?? Hmm. That doesn't work. Okay, in their new homes!

Remember our little Muttly?

Monday Mischief: You Mean... She's Not Mexican?

So, the mischief this time around was all on my part... I teased with you Rita's Wisdom Panel DNA test results last week and made you wait until today to find out what she is.

"Can you guess what breeds are in me?"

I mentioned that we had guessed a combo of GSD/beagle/terrier. Well, two outta three ain't bad.

Less-Wordy Wednesday: Travels with Reactive Rita

We are back from our road trip to Oregon with our reactive girl, Rita, and it was (mostly) a super fun trip!

Rita wasn't so sure about all the driving (she's fine with the down-time, but hates all the weird noises), so we tried to make sure she knew how fun road trips are...

Starting with a stop for an ice cream cone (which we split 3 ways):

"Okay, yeah. I could get used to this."

Monday Mischief: Sleepover & DNA Test Results Mischief

We're back from our vacation and blogging break! (Pics of vaca coming on Wednesday!) But before we went away, we had a sleepover guest - Reggie!

It was his first time spending the night, and there were a couple of mischief moments, like when he stole Rita's usual spot on the sofa!

"Hee hee! I stole Rita's spot!"

Monday Mischief: The Dog's the Thing

Okay, actually Shakespeare said: The play's the thing. But... we went to see a Shakespeare play - and it had a dog in it. And a play with a dog is really the thing!

That mischief-makin' pup totally stole the show!

Some folks from the hubs' work asked us to go to a play at San Diego's Old Globe theater, and they let us pick which one. I knew nothing about Two Gentlemen of Verona (if I had I might not have picked it...) but the blurb said there was a dog. So obviously I picked that one!

The adorable banners at the outdoor theater

Why To DNA-Test Your Dog

We've gone back and forth for a while now - well, years really - on DNA testing our pups. Back when we first started looking into it, there weren't that many breeds in the database, and we just decided to skip it.

We don't know what this angel was... just gorgeous!

Well, then I got the opportunity to talk to some folks about the Wisdom Panel 2.0 Breed Identification test kit. They were in San Diego attending a local event as part of a "Swab-a-thon" tour to test shelter dogs and help provide some info about their breed makeup to help match them to their furever homes. Isn't that a great idea?

I couldn't make the event, but they still sent me a home test kit to try out, and set up a phone interview with Harrison Forbes, who is a celebrity pet expert and dog trainer. (Check out his site - you might recognize him from appearances on Today or The View.)

Here are some of the questions and answers we discussed on the phone.

A Special Review - Memorial Jewelry

Those of you who've been following along I'm sure remember this picture I posted of my mother-in-law, Simone, and our angel Bailey as a Give Cancer the Paw tribute post. We lost them both to cancer. 

Monday Mischief: Chicken Treats?

You might recall (although, really, I'd be surprised if you did!) that I mentioned ages ago that there's a house in our 'hood that puts Trader Joe's molasses treats out for passing pups, along with a fresh bowl of water.

Rita munches a treat (note all the crumbs around her; slob)

Less-Wordy Wednesday: Hitting the Beach

I've written before about how we don't go back to the off-leash bay-front dog park anymore. (After The Worst Walk Ever we tried a few other times, but Rita doesn't have a perfect recall and I worried too much that she'd get in trouble with another crazy person.)

But recently we tried one of the many on-leash beaches. There are lots of beaches in San Diego where you can walk your on-leash dog - the only catch is that it has to be before 9am all year, and then after 4pm in the winter/6pm in the summer. 

It's Easy To Forget You Live With A Beast

Some of us put bunny ears on our dogs, or reindeer antlers. We let them share our sofas and our beds. We cuddle them and kiss them.

"I EAT antlers. I do not WEAR antlers!"

It makes it easy to forget that you live with a beast. Until they kill something.

#GiveCancerThePaw: Our Beautiful Angels

Today is our last Give Cancer the Paw blog hop. My co-host Peggy of the Writer's Dog and I invite you to join in and pay tribute to a special pet you've known and loved who has/had cancer. You can write a tribute post, share an old post about a beloved pet, or even just share a photo. Today I'm posting about our beautiful angels.

If you've been around the blog for a while, you know we lost both our beautiful girls, Bailey and Abby to cancer. Bailey had hemangiosarcoma, and Abby had osteosarcoma.

Join Us Wed. for the Last #GiveCancerThePaw Hop!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the last Give Cancer the Paw blog hop. My co-host Peggy (of The Writer's Dog) and I have done what we've set out to do: raise awareness about canine cancer, share news of studies and treatments, and raise the "power of the paw" in fighting this evil disease.